Orchid Research Newsletter 75 (PDF)
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Orchid Research Newsletter No. 75 January 2020 Editorial Orchids are perhaps not the first thing that comes to mind when we think about climate change. Record temperatures, catastrophic droughts, melting glaciers, out-of- control bush fires, burning rainforests and other calamities are of more immediate concern. But when we focus on orchid conservation, it is obvious that climate change looms large. It seems likely that orchids are more vulnerable to climate change than most other plant groups, for the following reasons: (1). Since about 70% of all orchids are epiphytes, they are probably more likely to be affected by drought. Even if mature plants would be able to survive unusually severe droughts, one can imagine that seedlings would be much more vulnerable. If such droughts become too frequent, seedling recruitment will be compromised, and the orchids will die out. (2). Since all orchids go through a mycoheterotrophic stage, at least as as seedlings, they depend on the presence of the right fungi for their long-term survival. It could be that climate change affects these fungi in such a way that they are no longer available to particular orchid species. These will then gradually disappear from their habitats. (3). Similarly, since many orchids depend on highly specific pollinators, the effect of climate change on the availability of these pollinators may be significant. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and we do not know if it is the orchid, the fungus or the pollinator that is the weakest link. (4). Orchids tend to occur in sparse, widely dispersed populations. This implies that they need large areas to maintain sufficiently high numbers of individuals. At the same time, it is undeniable that orchids must have survived even more dramatic episodes of climate change in the past than we are witnessing today. Most orchid species that still exist are probably old enough to have survived the most recent Pleistocene Ice Ages. Along with lower global temperatures, the Ice Ages saw massive vegetation changes. In what are now everwet tropical regions with rainforest as natural vegetation cover, there were much drier savannas during the glacial maxima, with small patches of rainforest in isolated areas. There can be no doubt that there have been enormous shifts in local orchid species composition and in species distributions during and after the Pleistocene. Nevertheless, 27,000 orchid species, or whatever the right number is, still inhabit our little blue planet. Is this reason for optimism? After all, it does show some form of resilience. Unfortunately, I don't think looking at the past can give us much comfort. The world was a rather different place, 20,000 years ago. Humans, while probably already a factor in the extinction of large mammals, had not reached such population levels that they could have made much difference to the world's vegetation. In other words, species driven from their original habitats by climate change would have been able to colonize adjacent areas with almost untouched vegetation. Nowadays, this would be much harder, as anthropogenic vegetation dominates so much of the globe. Many orchid species today would have nowhere to go. In addition, who knows how many species became extinct during the Ice Ages? And finally, the tempo of climate change today seems much higher than it was during past glacial and interglacial epochs. It is possible that the changes are now too rapid for many species to adapt, even under optimal conditions. On the positive side, certain species will be able to expand their range as a result of climate change, for example, Mediterranean orchids occurring farther North in Europe than before. It should be clear, then, that conservation must take climate change into account. How exactly this should be done is one of the main challenges lying ahead. Below are some recent references on orchids and climate change. We will need more of this kind of research. André Schuiteman [email protected] Kew References Adams, P. B. 2017. Effects of fire on Pyrorchis nigricans (R.Br.) D.L. Jones & M.A.Clem. in the Arthur Pieman Conservation Area, Tasmania. The Orchadian 19(2): 54–58. Adams, P. B. 2018. Destructive effect of fire on terrestrial orchid populations at Warrandyte, Victoria. Victorian Naturalist 135(6): 171–177. Atala, C., Muñoz-Tapia, L., Pereira, G., Romero, C., Vargas, R., Acuña-Rodriguez, I. S., Molina-Montenegro, M. A., and Brito, E. 2017. The effect of future climate change on the conservation of Chloraea disoides Lindl. (Orchidaceae) in Chile. Revista Brasileira de Botanica 40: 353–360 (doi: 10.1007/s40415-016-0333-4). Brown, J. and York, A. 2017. Fire, food and sexual deception in the neighbourhood of some Australian orchids. Austral Ecology 42: 468–478 (doi: 10.1111/aec.12464) [Diuris maculata, Caladenia tentaculata]. Brown, J., York, A., and Christie, F. 2016. Fire effects on pollination in a sexually deceptive orchid. International Journal of Wildland Fire 25: 888–895 (doi: 10.1071/WF15172) [Caladenia tentaculata]. Brundrett, M. C. 2019. A comprehensive study of orchid seed production relative to pollination traits, plant density and climate in an urban reserve in Western Australia. Diversity 11(8): art. 123 (doi: 10.3390/d11080123). Crain, B. J. and Tremblay, R. L. 2017. Hot and bothered: Changes in microclimate alter chlorophyll fluorescence measures and increase stress levels in tropical epiphytic orchids. International Journal of Plant Sciences 178: 503–511 (doi: 10.1086/692767) [Lepanthes spp.]. Davis, C. C., Willis, C. G., Connolly, B., Kelly, C., and Ellison, A. M. 2015. Herbarium records are reliable sources of phenological change driven by climate and provide novel insights into species’ phenological cueing mechanisms. American Journal of Botany 102: 1599–1609 (doi: 10.3732/ajb.1500237). Gomes, S. S. L., Vidal, J. D., Neves, C. S., Zorzatto, C., Campacci, T. V. S., Lima, A. K., Koehler, S., and Viccini, L. F. 2018. Genome size and climate segregation suggest distinct colonization histories of an orchid species from Neotropical high-elevation rocky complexes. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 124(3): 456–465 (doi: 10.1093/biolinnean/bly065) [Zygopetalum mackayi]. 3 Hutchings, M. J., Robbirt, K. M., Roberts, D. L., and Davy, A. J. 2018. Vulnerability of a specialized pollination mechanism to climate change revealed by a 356-year analysis. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 186(4): 498–509 (doi: 10.1093/botlinnean/box086) [Ophrys sphegodes]. Kaye, T. N., Bahm, M. A., Thorpe, A. S., Gray, E. C., Pfingsten, I., and Waddell, C. 2019. Population extinctions driven by climate change, population size, and time since observation may make rare species databases inaccurate. PLoS ONE 14(10): art. e0210378 (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210378) [Cypripedium fasciculatum]. Kolanowska, M., Kras, M., Lipinska, M., Mystkowska, K., Szlachetko, D. L., and Naczk, A. M. 2017. Global warming not so harmful for all plants—response of holomycotrophic orchid species for the future climate change. Scientific Reports 7: art. 12704 (doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-13088-7). Ongaro, S., Martellos, S., Bacaro, G., Agostini, A. D., Cogoni, A., and Cortis, P. 2018. Distributional pattern of Sardinian orchids under a climate change scenario. Community Ecology 19(3): 223–232 (doi: 10.1556/168.2018.19.3.3). Phillips-Mao, L., Galatowitsch, S. M., Snyder, S. A., and Haight, R. G. 2016. Model- based scenario planning to develop climate change adaptation strategies for rare plant populations in grassland reserves. Biological Conservation 193: 103–114 (doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2015.10.010). Putti, F. F., Filho, L. R. A. G., Gabriel, C. P. C., Neto, A. B., Bonini, C. D. S. B., and Rodrigues dos Reis, A. 2017. A Fuzzy mathematical model to estimate the effects of global warming on the vitality of Laelia purpurata orchids. Mathematical Biosciences 288: 124–129 (doi: 10.1016/j.mbs.2017.03.005). Reina-Rodriguez, G. A., Rubiano, J. E., Castro Llanos, F. A., and Otero, J. T. 2016. Spatial distribution of dry forest orchids in the Cauca River Valley and Dagua Canyon: Towards a conservation strategy to climate change. Journal for Nature Conservation 30: 32–43 (doi: 10.1016/j.jnc.2016.01.004). Reina-Rodríguez, G. A., Rubiano Mejía, J. E., Castro Llanos, F. A., and Soriano, I. 2017. Orchid distribution and bioclimatic niches as a strategy to climate change in areas of tropical dry forest in Colombia. Lankesteriana 17: 17–47 (doi: 10.15517/lank.v17i1.27999). Shefferson, R. P., Mizuta, R., and Hutchings, M. J. 2017. Predicting evolution in response to climate change: The example of sprouting probability in three dormancy- prone orchid species. Royal Society Open Science 4(1): art. 160647 (doi: 10.1098/rsos.160647) [Cypripedium parviflorum, C. candidum, Ophrys sphegodes]. Simpson, L., Clements, M. A., Crayn, D. M., and Nargar, K. 2018. Evolution in Australia's mesic biome under past and future climates: Insights from a phylogenetic study of the Australian Rock Orchids (Dendrobium speciosum complex, Orchidaceae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 118: 32–46 (doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2017.09.004). Tsiftsis, S., Štípková, Z., and Kindlmann, P. 2019. Role of way of life, latitude, elevation and climate on the richness and distribution of orchid species. Biodiversity and Conservation 28: 75–96 (doi: 10.1007/s10531-018-1637-4) [Greece]. Tye, M., Dahlgren, J. P., Øien, D. I., Moen, A., and Sletvold, N. 2018. Demographic responses to climate variation depend on spatial- and life history-differentiation at multiple scales. Biological Conservation 228: 62–69 (doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2018.10.005) [Dactylorhiza, Gymnadenia]. Van der Meer, S., Jacquemyn, H., Carey, P. D., and Jongejans, E. 2016. Recent range expansion of a terrestrial orchid corresponds with climate-driven variation in its population dynamics.